Hidden dungeons and Things to do in Archeage

So while I download the next update for alpha today I wanted to touch on some more experiences that I've noticed playing Archeage. As if the game wasn't fun enough playing with some of my favorite guild members. So it's easier to just list some of the interesting things which are less common knowledge about the game.

• Treasure Hunting
• Hidden Dungeons
• Pet Capturing and Raising
• Mount Skills and Level Up
• Hidden Islands
• Hidden Quests and Dungeons

So lets start with treasure hunting I'm pretty sure this one isn't really well advertised for the game so the object of this is to search the ocean floor looking for sunken treasure you actually need to craft items from leatherworking to make airbags to float the treasure to the surface just like what would be done in a real excavation. The ocean covers a very large amount of area so this means you can search very far distances looking for these sunken treasures and many of the materials are used in more difficult recipes for different designs in game. So we are talking about a great way to make money as well.

Hidden dungeons when we talk about this one might think yeah but all dungeons are eventually found but hidden dungeons in Archeage are a little different. The story quests don't actually make you go to hidden dungeons. These are actually dungeons which you more or less stumble apon while your questing. Like the first and only one that I found I went down this tunnel cause I saw this quest marker and when I got to the bottom the npc disappeared on me and just before I went to leave the location it appeared again which gave me just a simple quest. Though I noticed this locked door called royal chambers and I asked the guild if it was a dungeon no one knew anything so I left it. Then the next day I saw trion's stream about possible hidden dungeons and it made me think what if that was one of them. So I started killing some of the monsters and getting peices of cursed armor. At the bottom of the lake I found a place to actually purify the peices of armor and then found a npc asking for you to solve the puzzle of the royal tomb which gave me a key to unlock the door. The door wasn't instanced and so some of my guildies went in with me but what we didn't realize is that the dungeon is multi-floor so one key wasn't enough it was still a very fun experience. I actually walked into a room and aggroed the first boss and everything in the room like a derp and almost got us all killed but it was a lot of fun. And I'm sure there are many more dungeons just like that one that you can stumble apon.

Pet capturing and raising similar to that of Pokemon. You do get some starting pets during the quest line close to level 30 or so but you can also catch many of the world bosses and use them as pets. And then pet leveling also. Pets get skills with every few levels up they get depending on the pet the skills will be different. For example the donkey learns skills that increase pack carrying and learns an attack skill for charging at enemies. Caring for pets is easy you only have to feed them give them water and amuse them while your raising them into pets but once that is complete the only thing you will need to worry about is your pet dieing. Pets can be healed using the stablehand if they die during combat.

Hidden islands even though you have a world map which shows locations and contients many locations are not on the map and while you are sailing around you can run into many small islands which can be built on or people can hide farms on. These add to the more realistic feel to the game just as if you where exploring the ocean and the possiblity of running into islands.

Hidden quests and dungeons many locations contain hidden spots across the world for the people that like going and getting every single achivement possible similar to WoW's achivement system but some are simply having the right items on yourself to trigger a npc to talk to you or just finding a hidden quest npc which gives clues to some story. These can unlock dungeons as well which are not tied into the storyline and these dungeons are not "instanced" meaning that as soon as you and your guild unlocks them anyone can travel into them. That also means that if they are located near enemy faction they can kill you as well as pirates or if your in a flagged zone you can get killed by your own faction. They can drop a vary of different things to secret designs for some of the more difficult ships such as the black pearl pirate ship or various items for making things.

Archeage Review

Figured it would be a good idea to write a little review about Archeage since I tried playing the game on the Russian server and then went right out and upgraded to the English alpha. I would have to say the game is totally worth it. Coming from Tera Online and playing that for the past 2 years this game has so many good features which most mmorpg's just don't have and with the cry engine 3 the game is really beautiful.

One of the first things I picked up on is for a game that's in alpha the game is actually really well polished aside from a few small quest bugs here and there or some memory leak crashes here and there the game runs really well without problems. I've tested the alpha for a lot of games and most usually contain server crashing 24/7 downtimes and such. When they upgraded to 1.2 they had some issues database wise but they where quick to resolve them and get the servers back up.

When you get into the game at first it might not really seem like anything that you haven't already seen in a mmorpg but once you hit level 12 and get your glyder the game really opens up for you allowing you to just fly to any location. And also is really useful for finding that hidden ledge to plant trees and sneak farms rather then fighting over space to have a protected farm.

Or you can totally be that bad person going around stealing from other peoples farms. I will be doing some guides in the future about the infamy system and some of the quests you can do to lose infamy. But the one thing that this game is really good for is having many different ways to level up and things to do.

Even the crafting system gives experiance and is more complex then most games but at the same time it was very well planned out. The farming system is just like harvest moon you have to take care of your animals and water your plants and harvest them when they are ready.

If your current game is doing nothing but making you bored Archeage will keep you busy and give you something new and exciting to play. And if you have been playing an action combat game like Tera Online you will still be able to get into Archeage's combat cause it's very fast paced it doesn't feel like a Wow clone.

But there is one thing Archeage isn't. It isn't the game that you will want to solo in. You are only a small koi fish in a huge fish pond and everything revolves around gathering materials for stuff so if you want a ship you will need other people to work together to obtain things easier.